PEOPLE AND PLANTS--A POWER COUPLE

 

Plants sustain all life on earth.  They provide the oxygen we breathe, the food we eat and the trees we use for shelter.  We devour them with relish, berry, flower, fruit, leaf, stem and root. Red Raspberries, crisp radishes, fragrant plums and peaches.  Plants feed the sheep whose wool warms us, the cattle whose milk sustains us, and the goats whose Goat-milk soap washes our bodies.  Our barns and beds are of wood, our bodies clothed in cotton and flax. 

Plants regulate the climate, prevent erosion and store carbon. They connect us to the land and to each other. They shelter the birds and mammals that wait near our bird feeder.  They inspire artists, from Vincent Van Gogh's SUNFLOWERS to Monet's WATERLILIES  to Georgia O'Keeffe's Poppies, lilacs, and petunias.  Each month is represented by its own flower, carnations for January, violets for February, daffodils for March and so on.  Flowers speak our hearts.  Nothing says "I'm sorry" or "I love you" or "Get well soon" like a bouquet of fresh flowers. 

Flowers feed the insects who in turn pollinate the flowers.  Walking and sitting among, or even just looking at plants and trees, soothes our souls and lifts our spirits.  Nature mends us.  Aloe vera relieves our skin. Trailing ivy absorbs formaldehyde and other toxins.  Bamboo Palms humidify a dry room. The forest is a pharmacy of phytoncides that reduce inflammation and protect our neurons just by breathing.  Like a human kidney, sea grasses filter and clean water and feed and protect manatees.  It's hard to be depressed outdoors on a beautiful day. Or to stand beneath a giant sequoia, 3,000 years old, and not feel the breadth of the Universe. 

I am glad we have this daily gift.  Nina Naomi

 

 

A FEW HAPPY THINGS

 

Greenery--plants that freshen the air, watered and trimmed.  In the bedroom they help us sleep, removing airborne toxins and increasing humidity.  Like a night under the stars, or a walk somewhere freshly mown, plants are calming, slowing our heartbeats and relaxing our muscles. 

Airplane plants or philodendron need little care beyond water and succulents thrive on neglect. Asparagus ferns (not a true fern) grow fast and add a look of wild abandonment that I like.  Mine sends stiff shoots that rise a foot or so, then fall, finally tangling on the carpet. 

We are housesitting this month for friends in Santa Barbara, California mostly to take care of their lush greenery.  Family back in North Carolina is doing the same for me, watering and feeding my crazy indoor begonias that grow in the most haphazard directions and root in a jar almost before the water needs changing; my poinsettias that turn red as nights darken and grow cold, then green then red, year after year; the Boston ferns and snake plant, and money tree plant that's quite tall now in its 6th year.  

What can be happier than caring for indoor and outdoor plants? 

Books--stacked here and there.  Favorite ones or ones waiting to be read, scattered or alphabetized or grouped by interest.  Your own journals among them, your travel journals, sketches, scrapbooks. . . .  I read a saying, "You will be judged by your books."  Sounds good to me. Reading is the food for our minds. Our books are varied but not random.  Many are classics, like my favorite, Edith Wharton. Plus, rows of Barbara Kingsolver and Mary Gordon and Joyce Carol Oats.  Lots of poetry from the last century or earlier (I was an English major).  Theology and philosophy that my husband reads.  Then all the mysteries, Louise Penny and her Three Pines series especially.  Doesn't having enough books to read bring you comfort?  What else takes you outside yourself more than a good book?  Well, travel does.  But unlike travel, it takes no effort to plop down somewhere and read.  

 

So now we have two easy rewarding things, plants and books.  

The third is Blankets--lap rugs, throws, wraps, hand-made quilts (by my mom); old or new, fuzzy or soft, colorful or plain.  In baskets, on couches, by the fire pit, on the deck.  Waiting to enfold and warm.  If you don't have enough, check out thrift stores.  Clean and shabby is fine.  We used so many during pandemic outdoor get-togethers.  My new favorite is from warm Icelandic wool. An old favorite black-watch plaid Pendleton, my mom kept around her shoulders during her last weeks in a nursing home.   We can sit somewhere cozy under a blanket with a plant nearby freshening the air and read a good book.  Three happy things together.  

Crafts--for me, word collages, painted furniture, knitting.  A scrapbook of quotes and thoughts to quiet the mind and lift the spirits.  For my mother her quilting supplies. For my brother his art, his Florida patio home a gallery. Pottery, journaling (which someone called the soul's way of coping with reality), hand-made anything . . . I can't list all the creative ways to make our lives rich.  I think we would all agree that when we are creating something we are in a flow state, totally immersed, time passing and no distractions.  We feel challenged and content both.  That's a happy combination. 

There are many other small things that make life rich.  But these are the ones on my mind this California day, sitting at my computer amongst the tropical blooms on my friends' patio after a morning out, making my own life richer--and I hope yours--by sharing these thoughts.  

Thank you for sending your attention this way.  Nina Naomi